Tarot Diva, page 6
your opportunity to request help and guidance from higher
sources.
You are always surrounded by your own unique energy. In
addition to your words and actions, this energy is what attracts
people and situations or repels them. Energy work is a fantastic
area of study that you may want to investigate further.
The moment you decide to flip a card, actively fire up your
intuition, and ignite your psychic abilities, you do the work of a
true tarot diva. Treat yourself and your tarot space with respect
and reverence. When you do, the information you receive will
be powerful and profound.
Center and Open Yourself
You’ve created your sacred space, and now is the moment to
clear your mind and center yourself. A dancer would never start
dancing without warming up and stretching her muscles. You,
as a tarot diva, should also take the appropriate steps to ready
your mind and body for the work you are about to embark
upon.
Close your eyes and focus for a moment on your breath.
Consciously make your exhales longer than your inhales. Briefly
move through your body, looking for tension. Breathe and
briefly move those tense places to release any pent-up energy7.
Forget about your responsibilities and tasks. Know you are perfect right where you are. Know the work you are about to do is important. Imagine a white light beginning to grow inside you.
It brightens, whiter and stronger, and fills your body with a
warm glow. It is now outside of your body, protecting you like a
second skin. The white light continues to loom larger, forming
a pyramid of power, with the point above your head. Now, open
the top of the pyramid. Your body is surrounded by a cylinder,
a column of light, filled with energy7 and radiance from above.
When yrou feel the moment is right, open your eyes. You may
ask aloud for any helpful spirits or guides to assist y^ou. You
may also state aloud that your reading will be for you or your
client's higher good.
You are now ready to perform your reading.
Closing Your Energy
What we really want to do is what we are meant to do.
When we do what we are meant to do, money comes to us,
doors open for us, we feel useful, and the work we do feels
like play.
Julia Cameron
When you are finished reading, you will want to close off this
energy cone. Close your eyes again and imagine the great white
light surrounding y7ou. Consciously close off the top of the pyTa-
mid. You may allow the protective white light to stay with you.
You might choose an additional grounding exercise after closing your energy. Thrust your hands into a bowl of smooth stones you have collected. Walk barefoot in the grass. Eat a
handful of organic, unsalted nuts. However you choose, mark
the closing of energy with as much clarity as possible.
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Tarot Charms
Invite the magic of tarot into your life on a daily basis with a
tarot card-a-dav practice. You will pull one card every morning
and see how it applies to your day. This exercise develops a deep
understanding and personal connection with each card. Slow
and steady is the name of the game. If you are just laying a
foundation for tarot, don’t become impatient. Pulling one card a
day will build your knowledge of the cards in a solid, stable way.
To perform your card-a-day exercise, you’ll need to:
•
Have quick access to your tarot
deck
•
Keep a tarot journal
•
Center yourself
•
Perform enjoyable visualizations
Pulling a Random Card o f the Day
You will select a random tarot card each morning. Your card
should be selected with care, the same way you’d pick a bouquet of flowers for your home or choose a ripe, juicy apple from a farmer’s market. In tarot, as in life, the more time you take,
the better the results.
It is important to perform this exercise soon after rising from
a night’s sleep. We have a strong connection to our sleeping/
dream state/unconscious mind for forty-five minutes after waking. We want easy access to deeper parts of our psyche for our card-a-day practice. Additionally, waking up and performing
this meditative ritual liberates our day on a graceful, peaceful
note.
If you are taking baby steps with tarot, I’d advise you not to
work with reversed cards in your card-a-day practice. Reversal is
the term used when the card is drawn upside down. People
often read reversals as the polar opposite of the card’s traditional upright meaning. Reading reversals is actually not such a cut-and-dried process. You will acquire the subtlety o f reading
reversals as you continue to study tarot (find more information
about reversals on page 268). Integrating reversals is a separate
area of tarot study and need not be applied to your card-a-day
practice.
Your Tarot Journal
Your tarot journal is a repository of your thoughts and feelings on tarot. A three-ring binder works quite well. Divide your journal into five sections:
l } CARD-A-DAY
Here you will write and journal about your card of the day,
listing your impressions of the card. Write thoughts in the
morning and venture back later that night for an evening checkin.
2} SYNCH RON ICITIES
Synchronicities are coincidences that appear to be meaningfully related. You will write any synchronicities you experience.
Working with tarot, synchronicities will increase. You’ll want to
be aware of their increasing frequency.
3 } PSYC HIC POPCORN
fust as with synchronicities, you want to make note of psychic
pops. Confirmation is key. Affirm your pops, and you will not
be so quick to disregard them.
4 } R EA D IN G S
You will want to write and record the readings you perform to
look back and reflect upon.
5 } A D D IT IO N A L NOTES
Ultimately, people who read tarot cards and people who
keep journals are actively engaged in the creative process.
Conine Kenner
Mark extra space for other items you’ll want to include. This
could be your personal artistic renderings of the cards, your
Tarot Diva writing exercises, or anything else that tickles your
fancy.
Using a three-ring binder doesn’t mean your tarot journal
needs to look like it came straight from the office supply store.
Sketch or glue a copy of your favorite tarot card on the front. Fill
the journal with favored images cut from magazines, pressed
flowers, glitter, or perfumed pages. Make your tarot journal as
beautiful and unique as you are. For a marvelous resource on
tarot notebooks and writing, see Corrine Kenner’s book Tarot
Journaling.
Centering Yourself
Take a moment. Note how you are feeling before selecting
your card. Have you awoken from a delicious dream or are you
dragging your feet along the wrong side of the bed? Are you
groggy? Excited? Energized? Enthused? Do you want to roll
back into the soft comfort of your pillows? Look out the window. How does the weather make you feel? Is the sun sparkling or do rain clouds make you want to retreat?
Relax your body. Take a comfortable seat. Uncross your legs
and arms. Slowly move through your muscles, scanning for
areas of tension. Consciously relax those areas. Simply breathe
into a tense spot and imagining the muscles softening. Consciously acknowledge and thank the relaxed, energized, healthy parts of yourself Offer thanks to your good health.
Next, shuffle your deck while thinking about your day to
come. Do you have a big meeting today? Are you heading to a
tedious job or will you engage in work that feels like play? Will
you spend the day with family, friends, or alone? Is it a sleepy
Saturday with a lazy brunch planned?
Open your eyes.
Turn over your top card.
This is your card of the day.
Visualization
Performing a visualization is my favorite way to begin the
day. After taking stock of your day, when it feels right, stop
shuffling. For your visualization you must only close your eyes,
concentrate, and imagine. Science has proven the power of conscious visualization. When we imagine or think about something. areas of our brain, our synapses, light up the same way as if that thing were actually happening. Since our imagination
has such a strong effect on our physical body, I've created a di-
valicious scene set in a proper five-star hotel room.
Read through the scenario I’ve described below until you can
adequately play out the scene in your mind, adding personal
touches.
You have awoken in a bed o f white linen, emerging from delicious, restful sleep. A dream o f youthful love and a stolen first kiss lingers in your memory. You enjoy the sensation that anything is possible as you greet the day. Your nightgown falls to your feet as you slowly get off o f your bed. Sunshine streams
through the windows, and sheer curtains dance on the breeze
effortlessly circulating across the room. The sound o f water caresses your ears. A clawfoot tub sits in the comer, filling for your morning bath. The water is sprinkled with flower petals
and lemon peels. A table has been set for you—-fresh fruit, crisp
toast, and hot steaming coffee. You walk over to the mirror,
glancing at your reflection. You notice something lovely about
yourself, a quality you've never seen before. On a table under
the mirror; a tarot card has been placed out for you by the
concierge.
Fill your visualization with any quality that makes you feel
good. Replenish as your needs and desires evolve. Add items to
your visualization you’d like to manifest in your day to come.
Add someone wonderful snoozing in the bed next to you. Place
a large check, your name on it, next to your bed. Your hotel can
be set anyplace on earth you like. My hotel rooms rotate from
tropical islands to Provence to Tuscany. Add your own unique,
delightful touches. Tailor your visualizations. Make them divinely inspiring! Then examine your card of the day.
FOCUS ON THE CARD
Take note of the strongest impressions you have about your
card. Make sure to examine all aspects. Look at the foreground,
background, objects, and characters:
•
Does the suit or the number of the card resonate with
you?
•
Does a court card represent you or someone else?
•
Where is your attention continually being drawn as
you gaze at the card?
•
What is your card saying about your day to come?
•
Does your card offer a message?
•
Does your card offer a lesson?
•
Does your card offer advice?
•
Is the card being prophetic?
•
Does the card remind you of someone?
•
Does the card confirm an experience you are going
through?
•
Does your card act as a mirror?
Scribble your observations, along with the title of your card of
the day, in your tarot journal. Make careful note of your feelings.
Writing your impressions is of utmost importance. You may
enjoy the act of writing and find yourself journaling away. You
may only write one sentence. There is no right or wrong way to
write about your card so long as you write something down.
The moment you cast your attention to your card of the day, you
are activating your intuition. In order to understand how well
your intuitive facilities are operating, you must write them
down. It is far too easy to disregard your intuition when it is
correct. You can’t ignore your wise insights when they are staring at you from a piece of paper. Additionally, you will need to refer to your musings for evening check-in.
After you have written down your impressions of the card,
look up the traditional meaning in a tarot book. Look in Tarot
Diva or any other tarot book on your shelf. This will give you
extr a card information to ponder as you glide through your day.
Evening Check-In
Later in the evening, note in your tarot journal how your card
applied to your day. How did the card work out or reveal itself
in the course of your day? Were you right on the money? Did
the card predict a future event? Did the card remind you of
someone you bumped into unexpectedly? Did the energy of the
card reveal itself in a situation you encountered?
Don’t worry about being right or wrong, and don’t pass
judgment on yourself. The card-a-day practice should never be
used as ammunition against yourself if you were wrong. Card-
a-day is a slow, steady, enjoyable approach to learning the cards
and taking their meanings to a new and personal level. This is
an exercise meant to deepen your relationship with the tarot
and to engage your intuition.
Whenever we begin a tarot journal, we are knowingly or unknowingly committing to studying and evolving ourselves.
Elinor Greenberg
Using the power of card-a-day, I've reinvented the way I work
with and interpret tarot meanings. The storm clouds on the
Three of Swords once revealed themselves as a storm that
knocked out the electricity in the house. The Tower card once
revealed itself as a huge aha moment. The Six of Swords proved
to be an unexpected guest. There is no end to the delight and
surprise at your fingertips working with a card-a-day practice.
Note to beginners: If there are any cards that really freak you
out or make you uncomfortable, feel free to remove them from
the deck for your card-a-day practice. If the thought of drawing
the Ten of Swords first thing in the morning makes you nervous, remove it at once. Reintegrate these cards when you feel ready and comfortable. Remember, you are in charge of your
tarot experience. It should be an enjoyable one.
Diva Discernm ents
Learning tarot, you will formulate opinions about each card.
You’ll instinctively become drawn to or enamored of some
cards, and perhaps leery and nervous of others. Our gut
reactions are valuable. They put our intuition to the test and
shower us with insights. Yet. sometimes our assumptions can
lead us astray.
How often have you made judgment calls or speculations
about someone you’ve just met— only to find out you were
wrong? We’ll make assumptions about strangers with a quick
glance. Later, after chatting with them, you realize your first impression was wrong. You are surprised by how different they turn out to be. Assuming you know something is quite different than experiencing it intuitively. We don’t want to make the same mistake with tarot.
Intuitive Reactions versus Associative Memory
Our assumptions and preconceived notions spring from our
associative memory. Associative memory7 links our emotions to
the things we learn. Our brains link objects and associations together. We see a green light; it means go. We see a red light and associate it with stop. This is a very helpful mechanism, yet it
can sometimes stand in the way when interpreting a tarot card.
The whole point of working with tarot is to see the world and
yourself in an entirely different way.
While honing your intuition with tarot, you’ll find there is a
difference between an honest-to-goodness intuitive reaction and
a reaction springing from a series of preconceived notions. An
opinion based on preconceived notions is like the following;
You once stayed up all night drinking peach-flavored schnapps
when you were a teenager. You got horribly sick the next day.
To this day, the smell of any peach-infused drink immediately
fills you with revulsion.
The same set of preconceived notions and associative memory
applies to people. Let’s say your grandmother is a lovely, kind
creature whom you adore with all your heart. She has a mane of
white hair and is always stunning in her sterling silver jewelry
and purple blouses. You spy a woman at the mall with white
hair, a silver belt, and a purple dress. You immediately get a
good feeling as she approaches you.
Let’s also say you were bullied in grammar school. A mean
girl with short black hair, a denim jacket, and horrid Oreo
breath made your personal misery her seventh-grade mission.
At the mall, you spy a girl with short black hair and a denim
jacket approaching you. You instinctively want to run away.
